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Jollof Rice is hands down THE most popular West African rice dish for a number of reasons. It is a delicious tomato, bell pepper, onion and scotch bonnet based rice dish. It can be served with a number of equally delicous sides including chicken, fish, fried plantain. I think Jollof rice is always best washed down with a chilled bottle of supermalt.

West Africans will know well that the origins of jollof Rice is hotly debated, especially between Nigerians and Ghanaians.

Personally being of the Nigerian variety (Yoruba to be precise 😉) I think Nigerian Jollof is obviously the best. I’m sure

Jollof however is not an indigenous Nigerian name (at least not a Yoruba name) which would cause me to conclude it was not originally a Nigerian dish.

A little bit of research on the name Jollof reveals it is related to The Wolof people who are an ethnic group in Senegal, The Gambia, and Mauritania. The term Wolof also refers to the Wolof language and to their states, cultures, and traditions. Older French publications frequently employ the spelling “Ouolof“; up to the 19th century, the spellings “Volof” and “Olof” are also encountered. In English, Wollof and Woloff are found, particularly in reference to the Gambian Wolof. (The spelling “Wollof” is closer to the native pronunciation of the name.) The spelling Jolof is often used, but in particular reference to the Wolof empire and kingdom in central Senegal that existed from the 14th to the 19th centuries.

So Jollof rice does not indigenously belong to either Nigerians or Ghanaians but actually the Wolof people of Gambia or Senegal. We can conclude and agree that although Nigerians are not the originators of Jollof Rice, they are instrumental in the perfecting of the dish 😃.

Wanted to touch on a very sensitive and controversial issue. Africans alike know it as African time, Caribbeans know it as Black man time (I believe) and I’ve heard Indians refer to it as Indian time. All the terms are a nice way to refer to the fact the we as Africans and Black people in general are intentionally late for events and have a overly relaxed attitude to punctuality.

It’s such a legitimate term it has its own dedicated Wikipedia page! “African time (or Africa time) is the perceived cultural tendency, in most parts of Africa, toward a more relaxed attitude to time. This is sometimes used in a pejorative sense, about tardiness in appointments, meetings and events. This also includes the more leisurely, relaxed, and less rigorously-scheduled lifestyle found in African countries, especially as opposed to the more clock-bound pace of daily life in Western countries. As such, it is similar to time orientations in some other non-Western culture regions”. (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_time)

The first place I noticed this was at African weddings and big scale functions. The invitation will state a certain time and nobody gets there at the stated time, even the celebrants! For example, a 50th birthday party is scheduled to start at 6pm. Guests may not properly begin to arrive until 7:30pm. The celebrant may be fashionably late and arrive at 8pm or 8:30pm.

Unfortunately what can happen is this “African time” mentality infiltrates all other areas of your life. Which translates to you just scraping being on time to work, school, college, university, church or interviews. It can mean you miss trains and buses you could have easily otherwise caught. It translates to you arriving late to parties and potentially your own wedding!

I think the conclusion of the matter is discipline! (Admittedly I’m still working on this myself!)